


Aren't You Tired?

by Rikkamaru



Category: D.Gray-man, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-15
Updated: 2015-02-06
Packaged: 2018-02-25 11:18:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2619839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikkamaru/pseuds/Rikkamaru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Allen is being sent to his death for "being a Noah". Neah doesn't approve, and offers him a chance in another world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Allen took a deep breath, and winced as one of his fractured ribs was jostled. He was sitting in the cell the Black Order had thrown him into after they'd declared him a threat to the Order and ordered his execution. And of course, you couldn't escort a person to their cell without "roughing them up a bit" as it were.

No one would help him. Komui was regretful, but he'd argued as much as he could without being declared a traitor as well. Lenalee cried and screamed for her brother to do something, but never did anything herself. Lavi had reverted to his Bookman roots, and only watched on with cold and uncaring eyes. And Kanda couldn't care less about Allen.

The former exorcist rested his head on the wall, missing the feel of Timcanpy perching on his hair. The golem had wanted to follow Allen into the prison cell but he wouldn't let his friend do that, and told him to go to Cross instead. Timcanpy obeyed, if reluctantly.

"If it makes any difference," a voice echoed in Allen's head, then changed to ring throughout the room. "I'm sorry."

The white-haired teen looked up, and blinked. Crouched in front of him was his adoptive uncle, Neah Walker, in his Noah form and frowning sadly at him. His lab coat was flared out behind him and his gold eyes were clouded in sorrow as he looked at his injured nephew. Allen smiled at him and gripped the hand that was hovering over his face with his right hand. "I don't blame you for this, Neah," he said softly. "It's not your fault. I should've been more loyal, proved that we weren't the same person."

"Bullshit," his uncle whispered back, his fingers wrapping around Allen's wrist as if he were desperate to cling to the pulse he felt beating steadily beneath the former Exorcist's skin. "Anyone who questions your loyalty should be killed to rid this world of such stupidity and, last I checked, we didn't look that similar." The last part ended in a teasing whisper as Neah tugged lightly on Allen's hair with his free hand, his face kind and eyes alight with the faintest spark of humor.

Allen let out a breath in amusement. "I'll have you know," he defended, "I probably would have made for a very attractive redhead." He'd seen a picture of Neah, once, and he could admit that having red hair would've made for an interesting comparison.

"I'm sure you would have," the Noah placated, his left hand raised up in surrender even as he refused to let go of Allen with his right. "I'm also sure that all of the woman would have cooed at Cross about how adorable his _son_ looked too." The horrified expression on Allen's face was enough to have Neah laughing as he placed his free hand on Allen's leg for balance.

The moment of levity was shattered as Allen tried to fight back a pained groan and failed. Neah's hand on his leg disappeared so quickly it was questionable it was ever there, and the hand around Allen's tightened. "What was that?" The Noah asked lowly, his gold eyes locked on his nephews awkwardly placed legs. No, his eyes narrowed; not awkwardly placed, _crooked_.

Allen looked away, hiding the embarrassment on his face. "They wanted to make sure I didn't run."

The look on the Musician's face was thunderous. "They _broke_ your _legs_ ," he seethed, eyes molten in his rage. "I will _kill them all_ , those utter _bastards_."

It was Allen's turn to grip the Noah's hand, keeping him in place. "No you won't," he denied. "At least, not yet." He ignored the growl Neah gave him in response, and laid his head back against the wall. "I'm not going to live to even my twentieth birthday, Neah, and we both know it. I've had one foot in the grave since the day I was born." He nudged his left arm with his head, and felt it shudder in response. "Everything that came after that simply pulled my other foot closer and closer to the first."

Neah closed his eyes in a subtle attempt at denial, but Allen pushed on. "My only question now is what will happen to you?" Allen gave him a soft smile. "You may not be the best at showing it, but I know you care, and you certainly did a better job of trying to raise me for the few months we've known each other than my shishou has in all of the years he trained me. I don't want to see you get hurt."

His eyes were trained up at the ceiling, but flicked back down as his uncle pulled him into a crushing hug. "You stupid, crazy, darling boy," the man muttered into his hair, arms around the slight teen. "This is why Krory and Miranda and even my little Timcanpy would follow you into the pits of hell without you even having to ask. This kind of loyalty will kill you – hell it _is_ killing you! What did I do to get you as my host?"

Allen breathed out shudderingly in a shadow of a laugh. "I'd rather not answer that."

They sat like that, Neah hugging him and Allen resting his forehead on Neah's chest, for a while longer before the Noah inhaled sharply in revelation. "I think I know how I can help you, nephew."

Allen stirred a little at that and eyed him. "What about yourself? The execution –"

"The execution is the use of an Innocence that separates the soul from its body, which would kill a single person. But not a second soul that is, say, living inside a host body."

Allen paused, mulling over what Neah had revealed to him, and began to laugh breathily. "They think _I'm_ the Noah, so they're killing me. All of this for nothing."

The Noah ignored his nephew's morbid amusement. "If I can take over fast enough, I can catch your soul, and then I can use the Ark." The smiled down at his little host. "I can send you to a world where you'll be needed, appreciated, _loved_. All I need is your permission." He didn't even need it then, they both knew, but he wanted Allen to have a choice on the matter.

"A place to be loved…" Allen gave a wistful smile. "That sounds rather nice."

Neah squeezed his hand tightly in reassurance, and they spent the rest of the time they had together in silence, taking strength in one another's company.

It felt like seconds and an eternity when a guard appeared outside his cell. "It's time," he said gruffly, glaring at the white-haired teenager. Neah had disappeared when they heard the approach of footsteps. Allen struggled to stand, his legs screaming in pain for him to sit back down. He ignored them in an attempt of defiance for his fate and approached the guard with his head up and proud. He didn't flinch as the guard took hold of his arm and dragged him to his death.

He was thrown into a room with the Council staring down at him in disdain, and his friends and fellow Exorcists watching on to the side. Krory and Miranda weren't there, and Allen felt a moment of disappointment that he wouldn't be able to tell them goodbye. Kanda and Lavi were watching with uncaring eyes, and Lenalee had a death grip on her brother with tears rolling down her face.

Looking back up into the stands, Allen found the Generals there, and found his master with little difficulty. Cross looked completely unbothered, but Allen knew him too well to believe that. The grip he had on his chair was near shattering, and Allen could see the anger he felt over what was taking place in his eyes. That comforted him somewhat.

"Allen Walker," the boy in question allowed his eyes to lazily drift up to lock onto Leverrier. The man smirked smugly down at him, but Allen remained unimpressed with the posturing. The man noticed and scowled before continuing. "You have been found guilty of becoming a Noah and so have been sentenced to death. Is there anything you would like to say before you die?"

Allen looked at the man a moment longer, before scanning the entire room once. "Exorcists," he finally said, his voice hoarse as a lump formed against his will. "I wish you the best of luck in the trials you will soon face." He looked at Lenalee and Komui then, his eyes growing soft. "Tell Krory and Miranda that they were the greatest friends I could have asked for." Lenalee's sobs grew in volume, but Komui gave Allen a firm nod, and that was enough for him. He faced the Inspector again. "I'm ready."

Without pausing Allen walked up to the chair that sat in the middle of the room, the chair capable of ripping out his soul and leaving his body and Innocence there for them to use. He sat in it like it was his own personal throne, and threw a smirk at Leverrier. 'I will not falter on my dying day; this I swore a long time ago.'

The man glared back at him and snapped his fingers. Immediately, glowing blue chains appeared, attaching to his body and soul to tear them apart. Allen didn't make a sound as the pain began to take over. He soon found himself staring blankly at the ceiling in an effort to hide the agony he was in. A light began to appear before his eyes, growing larger and brighter as the pain grew.

And then everything went white…

And Allen smiled.

* * *

The silence that had over taken the room as the audience watched a boy be torn apart on the inside was shattered as the chair turned an ominous red before promptly shattering into glowing white shards. Two beams of light shot away from the wreckage, and both coalesced into forms. Many people in the room gasped.

What appeared to be Allen with his Crown Clown activated stood to one side, the masked face scowling darkly and both hands in the form of the long-nailed activation. He glanced around the room, dismissing people as he caught sight of them, and stilling once he reached the wreckage of the chair. "Get your hands off of him, _now_." He snarled lowly, and the group turned to look at the other form.

Grey skin, black hair, the seven stigmata noticed once he looked up at them…the entire room cried out in shock as they reached for their Innocence, only to find them refusing to activate. The Noah looked at them with contempt before looking back down and tenderly closing the now _armless_ Allen Walker's eyes. Catching their own confusion, the room turned to look at what they had thought to be Allen Walker in the first place.

"Now, now Crown Clown," the Noah chided, to the shock of the room at large. "Don't get snippy with me because of something the idiots did. I'm just giving him a more peaceful look."

"Good, wonderful," the Innocence said curtly, frowning even deeper at the man. "Now let my Master's _soul_ out of your grubby fingers."

The Noah sighed. "You always were too clever for your own good." He lifted his closed left hand and opened it, revealing a shimmering white and pink orb. It floated just above the man's hand, a faint song emanating from it.

"Master," Crown Clown whispered softly, walking closer to the enemy of his kind in order to see his Master one last time. A clawed hand lifted towards it, and the orb brushed against his palm before playfully weaving between his nails. The Innocence let out a faint sound of amusement and tried to close his hand around the orb, only for to pass through him like he wasn't there. "Please don't leave, Master," he begged, but all he got in response was the song echoing from the orb to grow sadder. "Please," he asked again, his voice hoarse and not a little broken, but they both knew. He can't return to his body because of the chair.

Letting out what could have been a snarl or a sob, the Innocence swung around to glare up at the stunned Inspector. " _How dare you do this!"_ he seethed, accusation hard in his voice. "My Master…my Master is _dead_! Because of _you_! Make no mistake _human_ ," it spat, voice hard and unforgiving, "I will kill you for this, one day."

"Innocence can't harm humans," the man, stupidly, tried to argue.

"Innocence can't harm that which they consider sinless," Crown Clown countered, eyes like molten silver. "And I can tell you now that you, in my eyes, have sinned more than any Noah short of the Earl himself has. I will _enjoy_ ripping you limb from limb." That unnerved the man into silence, and the Innocence turned to the Noah once more.

Neah was just ignoring the glowering Innocence, cooing instead to his nephew's soul as it hovered above his hand. Or rather, cooing to the thing clinging to his nephew's soul. "Come on now, it's not fair to make him suffer like this just because you're afraid to let go. He deserves to be happy. Would you really deny him that?" The pink inside the orb flashed a little as the being wavered between what it wanted and what was _right_. Finally, it began to slowly separate from the white which sang encouragingly to it.

When it finished, a pink orb revolved around the white one, wanting to be in its presence as long as possible. "Don't leave," it whispered faintly, not leaving the white orb's vicinity. "Please don't leave." Allen's soul sang back a sad melody, mournful but firm, and the pink orb let out a crying sound before solidifying in Neah's hand. The Noah looked at the Heart of the Innocence that rested in his palm, and turned to Allen's soul.

"What now?" he asked it, and the singing paused.

A thin, musical voice came out, words instead of lyrics. "Give them to Hevlaska. They deserve a chance to live without me."

The sound Neah made to that was sad and mocking. "They won't be living, darling boy, they'll be suffering." The Heart of the Innocence made a keening sound in agreement.

Allen's voice wavered. "But I don't want them to _die_. That isn't fair, for me to live and them to die." By then he was begging. "Please, Uncle Neah, give them to Hevlaska. Give them more to live for."

"You're underestimating yourself far too much," Neah chided softly, but sighed. "Fine, I'll get them there, but only after I've seen you off to the world that needs you." He looked around and imperiously snapped his fingers. "Ark, open."

A humming filled the room, silencing whatever talking there had been, and a door appeared before Neah, who boarded it with the easy grace of familiarity. Crown Clown followed close behind, wanting to keep sight of both the Heart and his Master. The two eyed the piano and multiple doors available, before the Noah sighed and sat himself down on the piano bench. He began the simple start up song to get the Ark to fully activate after placing Allen's soul down where Timcanpy would have been.

"So where should we go?" He asked his nephew, jumping from song type to song type. Nocturnes and lullabies; concertos and etudes, all playing at different parts and times, the doors to various parts of the Ark opening and closing in response. Allen's soul floated serenely on the piano, as if in contemplation before a series of quick notes emanated from the orb, and Neah stopped to listen to them. He laughed at what he heard. "A galliard and an impromptu? You sure do want an exciting life the second time around."

Even as he teased his nephew he began copying the notes, doors abruptly appearing before slowly, one by one, disappearing again until only one was left. The door glowed with the force with which it mirrored the Noah's song, a symbol carved above it to set it in place on the ark. Neah eyed the stylized spiral skeptically, but carried his nephew's soul over there, the Heart beginning to cry once more.

Sympathetic but not going to stop his chance to give his nephew an actual chance at life, Neah began to lead Allen's soul through the doorway. Its calls picked up even more at that, "Don't leave! Please! I _need_ you!" This did nothing to move the Noah but it no doubt broke his nephew's heart. He hissed sharply at it, and it softened to low, mournful cries once more.

Allen chimed back softly, and Neah smiled a little at what he gathered from the sound. "Don't worry; if we're meant to, we'll see each other again. And even if we aren't, I'll still find a way to do so." That was his hard-headed nephew for you; loyal until the end.

The door lit up even more as Allen's soul crossed through, and Neah gave him a small salute. "May your next life be a little less stressful, darling boy." Allen laughed one last time, and then he was gone.


	2. New World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allen's adventures in the new world begin.

In a ninja village a dimension and a half away from where a young man had died due to the ignorance of his superiors, a young woman screamed as she gave birth to her first child. She was alone, suspecting that the parentage of her child would be made obvious once they appeared in the world, and she didn't want that for him or her. She didn't want her child to be cast under the shadow of his or her father.

With a final scream, she pushed one more time, and the piercing cry of a newborn baby filled the air. She panted, grabbing a kunai and severing the umbilical cord while reaching for towels to staunch the bleeding. She carefully wiped down her child, and sighed in resignation. Sure enough, a patch of pearly white hair was on his head, and a red line ran vertically across the child's left eye. She smiled gently at her son, and reached for a brush and ink bottle.

"You'll do great things one day, Yuushi," she cooed to him gently, carefully writing a seal on the left side of his collarbone, just above his heart. With a flash of chakra the seal turned a dark tan, the line on his face turned the color of his skin, and his snowy hair turned a dark red more reminiscent to her own hair. "I just know it."

Little Yuushi yawned, his crying having ceased some time ago.

* * *

Yuushi blinked his grey eyes dolefully up at the Matron to the orphanage, his little arms wrapped tightly around a plush toad doll with a little jacket and toy sword strapped to it. Smiling gently at the child, the Matron opened her arms. "Welcome to our little family, Yuushi-kun," she said gently. "I hope you'll come to think of this place as your new home."

The boy looked doubtful but nodded to her statement. He followed her to the orphanage, trying to ignore the pitying looks being thrown at him as his mother's body was taken away for cremation. He didn't see a shinobi hand a scroll to the Hokage, who read the note on it before nodding solemnly and tucking it away.

The children seemed a little shy around Yuushi at first, but after a while they warmed up considerably and began playing and toddling after the three year old, who responded positively in kind.

* * *

Five years later, the boy looked up at the orphanage Matron. "Madam, I want to be a shinobi."

The Matron looked somewhat surprised, but not overly so. After all, this would be the first year that he would be allowed to enter the Academy early, and his mother had been a shinobi, so it wasn't that farfetched to believe that he would want to follow in her footsteps. "Are you sure, Yuu?" She asked him cautiously, and he made a small face before nodding in response.

The Matron hid a small smile; he had to be serious if he wasn't reacting against the nickname he bafflingly disliked beyond the smallest twitch. "I'm certain Matron," he told her stiffly, his dislike of the nickname slipping into his voice and making it a tad colder. "I wish to defend myself and my village, as well as the orphanage." He brightened up a little as he confessed his intentions, and if the Matron had been hesitant before it completely evaporated at the intense look in the little redhead's eyes.

She sighed, unable to keep her fondness out of the sound. "Alright, Yuushi-kun, I'll help fill out the paperwork for you to enroll."

Any regrets she felt for sending him into such a world melted as he brightened and beamed up at her, as if pleasantly surprised that she agreed to his request. It was strange, as he was such a sweet boy and did his best to not make the workers' jobs more difficult, so it wasn't too strange for the staff to be more receptive to hearing out his requests, which only seemed to confuse the poor boy.

The walk to the Academy was a little stressful, but Yuushi's sincere happiness of going made the little knot in her chest unwind every time she grew stressed by their destination. Once they arrived, it didn't take long for the paperwork to be filled out, and soon Yuushi was enrolled into the Academy as a new student.

* * *

Yuushi, once known as Allen Walker, didn't look up from his book as a shadow was cast over him until the shadow began to speak. "Well you're a boring one."

The caustic remark earned little more than a quirked eyebrow as Yuushi looked up and stared at the girl you blatantly stared back at him. She had dark hair and pupilless brown eyes, and was wearing a lot of mesh and a skirt that stopped a bit above her knees. Objectively, she was very pretty, and would probably end up on more than a few seduction missions. She grinned, and Yuushi felt the aura of a prankster surround her. "Name's Mitarashi Anko."

"Yuushi," he introduced back, and the girl let a snort escape her.

"Your mother expecting some great things from you, eh?"

Even though he understood the reason for her faux pas, Yuushi still let his eyes narrow in not-quite anger. "My mother is dead," he told her, and Anko recoiled and fidgeted, her eyes skipping from place to place in the classroom.

"So does your name…?"

"No," he assured her, sympathy beating back any anger at her bluntness. "It means wanderer or traveler. She always said to just keep moving forward, no matter the odds, so maybe that's why she named me that." The last part was said with a fond smile, his mother's laugh and voice echoing in his mind from what little he remembered of her. He then looked at the girl with inquisitive eyes. "Considering your last name," he began, "does your family own a dango shop?"

Anko laughed at that and sat beside him, her previous criticism of him forgotten. "Sure does," she chirped, propping her feet up on the desk as she leaned back in her chair. "I'll try to bring some next time for lunch!"

Yuushi smiled, and Anko looked somewhat startled before grinning back. "That would be nice," he said, and thus a friendship was born.

With this friendship came a refreshing realization for Yuushi; he could, for the first time in his life, act like a child. It wasn't until Anko was pestering him and teasing him by holding his dango out of reach that Yuushi figured this out. He was eight, in a world that smiled at him both for being a child and for deciding to train to defend the village. He wasn't an exorcist. He wasn't a Noah. He was Allen.

He was _Yuushi_.

And so, ever so slowly, Yuushi began to open up. He began to laugh and tease Anko, he began to smile a lot more and much more sincerely. He began to run in the streets and chase after the younger kids from the orphanage as they tried to get away, screaming happily.

Yuushi was eight going on twenty-four when he finally learned how to be a child.

* * *

Yuushi made a face as the smoke dispersed from his attempt at a clone, to reveal a pale sickly one that groaned until Yuushi put it out of its misery. He heard Anko cackling behind him as the teacher let out a long suffering sigh. "You can sit down, Yuushi," he told him. "Just work on your chakra control for now."

Yuushi scowled but did as he was told, slipping two extra leaves into his sleeve when he went to pick one up. He'd already mastered sticking one leaf to his forehead, now he needed to work with more in order to have any progress with better controlling his chakra. Apparently he just had unnaturally large reserves.

He elbowed Anko a little as he passed her, and she grinned and tried to hook her ankle around his to trip him, but he just jumped over it. They knew each other too well to actually fall for the other's tricks by then.

A year had passed since they had established their friendship, and it was the best year of either of Yuushi's lives. He lost count of how many times he smiled, and laughed, and ate dango beside the girl who'd quickly become his best friend. Her parents, both rather kind and playful like their daughter, liked him and were always happy to see him at their shop, though they did tend to laugh whenever he came in with a cat with a ribbon around its ear that liked cuddling him for warmth.

As it was their second year at the Academy, they were learning the three basic jutsu that all Konoha genin were expected to know. The only problem was that those three techniques were made for Academy students, and so cost very little chakra to perform.

Yuushi, apparently a developing chakra powerhouse, was therefore struggling quite epically with them.

The teachers, refusing to believe that non-Uzumaki could possibly have that much chakra at such a young age, insisted that he simply sucked in the chakra control department and made him practice with whatever free time he may have to get his chakra control to near perfect.

He'd already moved to tree-climbing without the teachers knowing, and he _still_ couldn't make a stupid clone!

In contrast to his difficulties in the ninjutsu department, Yuushi exceled in taijutsu and the basic classes like math and history. Though to be fair, if he wasn't the best in terms of his taijutsu, after living through a _war_ in his previous life, he would have never forgiven himself. Math as well, considering that he was the one that had to pay all of his master's bills, making him quite proficient with money-handling and math in general.

History was to make sure that he didn't mix up this world with his last and say something completely off, though he was arguably mediocre as far as his teachers were concerned as they graded him poorly on a report he made that extrapolated what would have happened if Madara had been made Shodaime Hokage instead of Hashirama.

Apparently the ninja world didn't believe in historical fiction. Or hypothetical situations.

His face darkened at that memory and Anko, who had just made the clone no problem and was moving to sit beside him again, saw it and laughed. "Are you still brooding over that bad grade you got because you made up what would happen in Madara had been the Shodaime?"

"I didn't make it up!" he snapped back, fervent in the defense of his report. "There was a literal tie-breaker to decide who should lead the village, and the only reason Hashirama-sama won was because he'd saved the guy's daughter during the Clan Feuds! He was just at the right place at the right time; otherwise the clan head would have chosen Madara because he actually agreed with a lot of the Uchiha's opinions."

Anko actually looked fascinated as she listened to his griping. "Where'd you find all that out?" she asked. "It certainly isn't in our history books."

Yuushi rested his chin on his left fist, twirling a pen idly in his other hand. "His autobiography was in the library. It was so old and unused that the librarian just gave it to me for keeps. He never says his name, but it was clear that he was the tie-breaker that decided Hashirama as Shodaime. Anyways, the report just follows logical jumps after that. Madara believed in a more militarized system, so there would either have been less civilian families or the Academy would have been brought about before the Nidaime came into power."

He continued, not noticing the interest he was slowly getting from the students around him. "While Hashirama was from a prominent clan, he didn't put as much stock in Kekkei Genkai users as some think. It's likely that Madara would have been the same, but more because he wouldn't have trusted them where Hashirama was more of a "trust everyone equally" person and would have had faith in them still, just in addition to non-clan shinobi. The Military Police…would have likely still been led by the Uchiha clan, but there would be more people from other clans there as well, and it would have possibly become a requirement to be enlisted there for a certain amount of time while serving as a chuunin before you could advance to jounin."

He threw his pen in the air, and caught it with his other hand as he casually moved his head out of the way. His grey eyes flashed as he mentally ran through his report again. "And of course, the jail would not have been so near the Uchiha compound, but somewhere more defensible both location-wise and taking into account the power of its strongest fighters, the Shodaime, Hashirama and Tobirama. So the best bet following that logic would be in fact the Forest of Death."

He shrugged and leaned back, the pen now twirling in his left hand. "After that, I admit to not knowing what would happen, but still. That should warrant a fairly good grade nonetheless." As he quit grumbling, Yuushi looked up to see that most of the class was staring at him, the teacher included.

The sensei sniffed. "We've had this conversation, Yuushi-san. You can't start a theoretical paper without proof that there was a tie in the first place."

The redhead stared at his teacher. " _That's_ why I won't get a full grade?! No proof of a tie? I have the journal of the tie-breaker! I can _give_ you proof!"

The teacher snorted and turned away. "There's no way that journal could have been in the library without someone aware of it, Yuushi-san."

Yuushi stared at his sensei in flabbergasted silence, then facepalmed. Apparently these kind of people were everywhere, and not just in his old world.

Anko snorted in amusement. "Ignoring the fact that the teacher refuses to believe you on the whole journal thing, in fact let's just ignore that report in general," she snickered as Yuushi grumbled at her before looking away sulkily. "What did you think of the sealing class we had before this?"

"It was interesting, I'll give it that," Yuushi admitted, looking lost in thought as the class slowly turned to face the front of the room once more. "Almost like a completely different language all together. But I don't have any real reason to look further into it outside of making storage scrolls and explosives. Maybe later on, but not while as a genin I imagine." He dismissed the thought, even as he hid a slight longing.

It did sound kind of fun, after all.

* * *

"Why does no one talk about the signs of war going on outside the village?" He idly asked Anko one day during lunch, chewing on some dango as he pet the cat lounging on his lap. It was letting out a loud, rumbling purr as he scratched at the ear not covered by the obnoxious red ribbon. He was tempted to remove it, but figured that the owner might need it to find the cat later. Still…

Anko was muffling her snickers as the boy untied the ribbon and retied it around the cat's neck, scratching it under the chin to keep it docile, not that it was necessary. The cat butted its head against his hand in thanks and Yuushi smiled back brightly. "Your genin team will love you," Anko told her friend in amusement, and the redhead blinked back, confused.

"Why's that?" he asked, somewhat distracted as the cat moved to nuzzle his face, and Anko used that moment of distraction to try and steal his dango. He moved it just in time without jostling the cat, earning him a pout from the girl.

"Just something my parents mention from time to time," she dismissed. "Anyway, what do you mean by signs of war? I don't think any declaration has been made…"

"There hasn't," Yuushi admitted, and fiddled with the stick that previously had dango on it before using it as a toy for the cat to bat at its leisure. "But you can feel it, ne? The older ninja are tenser, warier; people don't look as happy; parents are calling their kids in earlier. All of the adults are getting ready for something."

"And you think that something's war?" Anko asked, and Yuushi could do nothing but nod. "Well, I say don't think about it. It's not like you can do anything about it as you are. We are only Academy students, after all."

"That's true." But Yuushi hated it, waiting with bated breath for a war that he can't even participate in to begin. Just forced to sit by helplessly as the village he loves is ravaged by the battles yet to come. He clenched his fist. He'll be able to help, some day. In a year, he'll be a genin, and he'll be able to help.

Until then…

"So I've seen you picking on a boy a year younger than us, Umino-kun I believe his name is." Yuushi's hand subtly tensed around his dango stick because, nine-year old Academy student or not, his friend may very well try to kill him after this. "Does Anko-chan finally have her first crush?"

He laughed as he moved the cat to safety and used the dango stick to block his friend's dulled kunai whilst she cursed loudly at him, her face red.

* * *

*Omake*

Yuushi was wandering through the orphanage, bored but not wanting to stare at the ceiling or walls of his room any longer, or he'd end up counting all the cracks in them.

Again.

As he passed by a mirror, one of the few in the orphanage, Yuushi glanced at it in passing then froze. Ever so slowly, he turned back to the mirror, and his hand shot up to muffle the scream that almost came out.

His reflection stared back at him in equal amounts of horror, grey eyes wide and red hair bristling defensively.

"Don't _do_ that," he hissed at his reflection without thinking, then smacked himself. Honestly; it wasn't his reflection's fault he had red hair.

"I think Cross ruined any hope of me looking at redheads without wanting to scream," he mourned quietly to himself, continuing on his directionless journey which would eventually end up with him in the kitchen, helping with preparing dinner whilst also begging for scraps from some of the not as strict workers.

*End Omake*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yuushi can mean a lot of things, depending on the kanji. From what I understand (which means I went to RomajiDesu), Yuushi can mean brave warrior or hero, grieving, sympathizer, a child one considers their own, loans, wanderer or traveler, historical, or ambition. My friend and I thought that so many of these fit Allen that we should just give him this name and I had the kanji be for wanderer. So it's the joke that Naruto means fishcake or maelstrom, but so much worse in that there are so many different meanings.


	3. Resolve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuushi goes to see the circus. He isn't happy with what he finds.

Anko went into class that day fully prepared to be hit with the onslaught of Yuushi's complaints as his inability to make a clone continued to dog his footsteps. When they found out that Yuushi's chakra exercises also led to him having more chakra in general, Yuushi had looked close to snapping and Anko had laughed herself silly.

Instead of seeing the expected sulking Yuushi, she came across the boy near vibrating with excitement, his eyes locked onto the blackboard by sheer force of will as he shook ever so slightly. Anko was a little frightened by the force of his apparent enthusiasm. "Yuushi…are you okay?"

Yuushi snapped his head up to look at her, before grinning widely and enthusiastically in her direction. "The circus is in town, Anko!" he cried out, bouncing in his seat. "We have to go!"

"…why?" She was admittedly more freaked out than curious, but he was more likely to answer her question if she said it in an even manner.

Yuushi calmed a little now that he had a chance to spout poetic about the circus. "Because it's fun! They learn some really fantastic tricks, especially for civilians! I've seen circus folk juggle twenty knives and not drop a single one; I've yet to see a shinobi boast the same!"

Anko whistled with the appropriate amount of appreciation, and it wasn't all for show. To juggle that many knives and not lose track…she might start practicing with that. It'd be good spatial awareness training. "Alright," she agreed, settling in next to her friend as the teacher walked in. "Let's head over after class."

The grin he shot her made her dismiss any worries she may have had.

Yuushi was a weird boy, Anko contemplated as she robotically took notes on what was on the board. He wasn't rough-and-tumble like most boys their age were; she usually found him with his nose buried in a book if he wasn't chasing the other orphanage kids around at their behest.

To be honest, Anko hadn't expected to make any friends while at the Academy. Her parents, while both had ninja in their families, were civilians and Anko had grown up into a rougher child than most civilian-raised kids, and it led to a weird dichotomy where neither side would want to hang out with her, the civilian-born because she was too quick to jump to fighting and the ninja-born because they didn't know her and they tended to hang out with kids they'd grown up around.

In her frustration, she'd turned and snapped at the red-haired boy reading a book in her classroom. And he'd become her best friend ever since that day.

Her parents liked him, even if you didn't take into account his habit of appearing at the shop with the rumored demon cat. He was polite to them and playful with her, and she couldn't bring herself to regret insulting him that fateful day.

She turned to look at the boy in question and saw that some of his excitement had faded, replaced with a faint worry whenever he glanced out the window; he was thinking about the war again, she realized. A few months after his prediction that war was to come, the war did indeed begin, and the curriculum suddenly dropped history and techniques were being shoved down their throats. How to survive torture, basic first aid, an emphasis in strategy.

The Academy was ripping off the sheep disguise before they even made it, leaving only wolves in their wake.

They were all taking it rather well, in Anko's opinion. A few civilian-raised had dropped out but that was it; they all saw the necessity of what was happening, even if they didn't like it. You need soldiers if you're going to war, after all.

Anko once saw one of the boys in the class crumble to the floor and sob after he was forced to kill a rabbit so that he would get over the shock of his first kill. Yuushi had dragged Anko over to him side and hid the boy from view, a hard look in his eyes as Anko scared everyone else off.

He was a mousy thing, civilian-raised with chin-length hair and big brown eyes somewhat hidden behind his round glasses. His name was Aikawa Kaede, and he clung to their little group with a ferocity that somewhat surprised Anko. It appeared that he was being bullied by some of the other students for his smarts, and so didn't have any friends to speak of before the Yuushi and she had barreled into the young boy's life.

He was sitting on Yuushi's other side now, and would nudge him if he stared out the window for too long. The boy now sported a pair of prescription goggles rather than glasses, for added protection and safety. The redhead smiled at him and looked back at the blackboard, and Kaede blushed a little but it appeared to be out of habit more than a forming crush. Yuushi's smiles did that to some people, made whatever was going on feel more intimate.

Anko tended to get a good laugh out of it whenever he accidentally used it on a teacher.

The rest of the day ended rather quickly and soon Yuushi was running out of the room with the classes' two pariahs at his side, laughing and racing one another to where they could see the bright tent of the traveling circus that was in town.

* * *

Walking into the circus tent made Yuushi feel like he'd just come home.

It was a weird feeling, especially for a wanderer/orphan who really didn't have anything they actually called home. Home was where you put your heart, where you knew what was happening every moment of every day, where you could sleep without keeping a knife beneath your pillow (it just so happened that the toy sword on his toad doll was not, in fact, a toy). The war had taken the feeling of home that Yuushi had felt for his village away from him, but it looked like the circus might just bring it back.

He, Anko, and Kaede explored the different exhibits and displays throughout the circus with wonder, Yuushi having never really been on this side of the display and the other two legitimately curious about the happenings. Anko eventually bustled off to pester the knife juggler into teaching her the basics (Yuushi made a note to practice with her; he didn't want any of his skills to get rusty after all) and Kaede wandered off soon after to examine the lion he saw resting in a cage a ways off.

The redhead smiled at their genuine enthusiasm, the happy atmosphere around him putting the boy in a slight daze. The feeling shattered when he bumped into someone.

Instinct taking over, Yuushi grabbed the falling object with one hand and steadied the person with his other hand, smiling apologetically. "Gomenasai, Onee-san," he apologized. "I wasn't watching where I was…" He trailed off, looking into the teenage girl's eyes. He categorized the emotions he saw.

Confusion.

Mild hostility.

Fear. Overwhelming amounts of _fear_.

He knew those eyes. He saw those eyes every time he looked in a source of water or the occasional mirror when he was traveling with the circus. She was a street rat with limited options, like he had once been. She chose the circus instead of starving to death, just like he had. She resented it, like he had.

But never, not once in his life, had he seen the unnatural, forced obedience that lined every inch of her frame.

"Nee-san," his voice dropped to a whisper, hissing under his breath. "Nee-san, what's wrong?"

The teen looked reluctant to answer, her eyes flicking to the left, about where he had last seen the ringmaster if Yuushi remembered correctly, before resolve began to shine in her blue eyes. "Not here," she hissed back, tugging lightly on his sleeve in an obvious entreaty for him to follow, which he obeyed easily. They crept to the backstage, then clambered up the stacks of hay used to feed the horses. None of the troupers had cared if the circus brats that stayed for food went up there in Yuushi's last world, and it seemed to be much the same in this one.

Yuushi sat beside her, his posture languid and at ease, trying to help keep her calm. "What's going on, nee-san?" He asked again, staring intently at the teen as she tried to center her thoughts.

She looked up from her hands. "You know how children will travel with a circus for food and shelter." It wasn't a question, but Yuushi still answered with an affirmative. "I was too unruly, apparently, and the ringmaster hired someone. They put this on me," she lifted her black hair a little, and Yuushi stared at the base of her neck, where an unknown seal had been put. _Tattooed_ , he correctly mentally, and resisted the urge to snarl. "It…hurts me if I screw up or disobey, makes me lose any sense of balance, makes it hard to breathe."

"That…" Yuushi had no words to express the disgust he felt in that instant. "That's terrible!" He scrambled for words. "Those pigs! This…this is _slavery_! You have every right to leave when you wish!" He knew she couldn't leave now, not with her life being held in the hands of such a despicable person; the moment she made moves to leave he could kill her.

"Survival trumps happiness right now, kid," she snorted, and oh how he knew that feeling. Survival had pushed him many a time in the past, from joining the circus to joining Cross. The last one was the only one he regretted in terms of what he has done in order to survive.

Seal theory crossed briefly through Yuushi's mind; the storage seal, the seal array on the explosion tag... the abomination etched on the girl's neck, the endless possibilities it had shown itself as when Yuushi had first been introduced to the subject.

And if seals had made this girl's life hell, then seals could fix it again.

"I promise," he told her lowly, a fire burning in his eyes and making them look silver in the dim light. "I'll get rid of that thing. It may not be now, and it may not be by the time you leave, but I will." Because he'd been in her shoes, once upon a time, and he knew exactly what he would have done if such a leash had been put on him when he'd been in the circus. And he didn't wanting her doing what he would have done once he'd grown tired of a collar-noose like that around his neck. He won't stand by and let her kill herself.

The girl looked reluctant to believe him, and Yuushi didn't blame her for it, but she seemed to see something in his eyes because she snorted a little and leaned back against the hay. "I'll hold you to it, kid." Her eyes were challenging, and he rose up to meet it.

It looks like he had some studying to do.

"I'm Yuushi," he finally introduced himself, and the girl gave a mocking grin.

"Kaida," she said, and Yuushi grinned back.

"It fits." The girl gave a surprised, real laugh at that.

They talked for a little after that, but Yuushi knew that Anko and Kaede would worry if he went missing for too long, so he reluctantly bid farewell to his new friend and left, finding both of his friends talking hurriedly to one another near the entrance. As he approached, both caught sight of him.

Anko tackled him in a hug and Kaede hurried over with a relieved look on his face. Once Anko let go, she promptly smacked him on the back of the head. "Where the hell have you been?!" She exclaimed, scowling at him while Kaede put the end of his shirt in a death grip. He didn't answer and instead herded their little group out, his expression serious enough to stall Anko's questions for the time being.

Once they were far enough away Yuushi told them the basics of what he had learned, and both looked horrified by the idea of a seal forcing a person into servitude. "I'm going to become a seal master," he told them seriously. "I'm going to find out how to break that obedience seal, and make sure I'm never that helpless in front of something like that again. I'm going to free Kaida."

"I've seen that look in your eyes before," Anko said in an almost offhand manner. "You've already adopted her into our little group, so I won't bother doubting that you'll be able to help her. Kami help anyone that tries to stop you."

Kaede nodded as well. "I'm not good with the practical parts of sealing," he confessed, "and I barely get the theory behind it, but I can still help. The librarian lets me check out higher level books because I got permission from the Head Sensei and my parents like to buy random shinobi scrolls when they travel if they're fairly priced; I'll try to get anything I can on fuuinjutsu."

Yuushi was a little surprised by their acceptance and – in Kaede's case – enthusiasm in helping him, but he didn't let it show; they always looked sad when he seemed surprised with them helping him.

Well, Kaede looked sad; Anko looked like she was planning to hunt someone down.

Instead, he smiled and took them to a sweets shop; his treat.

* * *

*Omake*

Namikaze Minato, the prospective Hokage-to-be, was sitting with his girlfriend in Ichiraku when he heard a loud laugh behind them. A loud, familiar laugh.

Minato was careful to look behind them, where he saw a red-haired boy with a girl and boy beside him, the girl reaching over the boy trying to grab a stick of dango as he held it away from her while the other boy laughed. "Back off Anko, this one's mine!" The redhead exclaimed, leaning away from her as she reached over him. Then one – or both – of them lost their balance and they toppled over onto the ground.

As the two tumbled on the ground and made indignant squawks, the other boy just started laughing even harder.

Minato watched them for a moment longer then looked at his girlfriend. "Kushina, do you have a little brother, or cousin living here or something?" he asked, a little confused.

Kushina gave him a look. "Nooo," she drew out, curious. "Why?"

"Just wondering," was all he said in response, turning to look at the trio as the boy elbowed the girl off of him with a laugh and gave her the stick of dango anyway.

Probably for the best that they aren't related, Minato decided.

Honestly, he loved Kushina, but even he knew that two Red Hot-Blooded Habaneros running around could only spell doom for Konoha.

*End Omake*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with Kaede. He just kind of showed up.


	4. Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Change is starting, and Yuushi is in the center of it all.

Saying that Yuushi took to the sealing arts like a duck to water would be like saying that the desert was a little dry; the moment he opened the books on beginning sealing the words and meanings to each seal were like a language in themselves, and Yuushi had been a native speaker the entire time. Ideas and arrays surrounded him in the orphanage, an impromptu nest that he'd fallen asleep on more than once.

Anko and Kaede had tried to study with him in the beginning, before giving up as the theories flew over their heads while Yuushi soaked them up like a sponge. They then decided to help him by making sure he ate and slept. Anko's parents also joined in after he'd walked into their shop one day after an all-nighter with sunken cheeks and dark bags under his eyes.

Kaede's tears and Anko's dressing down following his arrival into the shop had been enough to make Yuushi promise to sleep at least 4 hours on the weekends, his voice only just hiding his confusion and his chest suspiciously warm.

He didn't quite understand what he'd done to get such wonderful friends in this world, but their concern was enough to make him slow down a little in his endless quest for sealing knowledge. So he studied a little more smartly, making sure that he could recognize seals of all types, particularly tattooed or ingrained seals.

It was as Yuushi was changing out of his clothes one day that he caught sight of the birthmark on his collarbone. Normally he would just glance at it then look away, used to it by then, but he'd been researching seals that changed color after activation that day and he paused. Curious of the thoughts drifting around in his head, the redhead stepped closer to the mirror and looked more carefully. Now that he knew what to look for, he could see it clear as day; the slight curve to the right, the "erratic" dots that surrounded the main part. Pulsing his chakra faintly in the typical seal detection manner only confirmed it.

There was a seal on Yuushi, and the boy had no idea why.

But when would he have received it? He'd had the birthmark all his life; there was even a picture of him as a child wearing a shirt far too big for him with the seal out for all the world to see. The ten year old blinked and cupped his chin thoughtfully. Had his mother put it on him? For what purpose?

Yuushi shrugged it off for now, but kept a mental note about it. Once he was able to decipher the intricate seal to figure out what it was doing, he'd decide what to do with it. Until then, it was still little more than a birthmark.

He could wait to figure out that particular mystery.

* * *

"Give me back my brush, Anko!" The boy shouted as he raced her down the street, but Anko didn't slow down a lick and instead cackled maniacally back at him, loud enough for him to hear if his enraged howl was anything to go by.

If he studied those seals of his any longer today, his eyes would've fallen out! Really, Anko was just being a good friend and making sure he didn't burn himself out too quickly. The circus had already left, taking Kaida with it, so Yuushi had some months before she'd be back and he was already making some frightening progress with seals.

The redhead could now make about two explosive tags a minute and had already figured out the smoke bomb variant that was mentioned in a few of the books as exercises to recognizing seal structure. He also had at least two storage scrolls full of storage scrolls, and Anko felt no hesitation in asking for a few from time to time. He really needed to sell some of those.

It'd only been two weeks and already Yuushi was studying preservation seals and theorizing on his _own_ variants to the basic model, if what she understood from his notes and explanations was correct.

But she did understand what was pushing him. Yuushi wasn't one to love without committing himself fully to the endeavor. If he befriended a person, they only had to call for Yuushi to come rushing to their side, whether it be for help in choosing what outfit to buy the few times she went shopping or a sparring partner to test out a new strategy or technique.

Yuushi loved and protected with his entire being and somehow, in the few minutes he spoke to her, he'd brought Kaida under his wing, and to see her leaving the village and being forced to obey that bastard of a ringleader was probably tearing Yuushi apart. That's why Anko was doing this.

She needed to remind him that he wasn't alone in this struggle. She and Kaede were going to be there, doing whatever they needed to keep their best friend from falling apart at the seams.

With these thoughts running around in her head, Anko lost track of where she was and so startled when she collided with someone and fell to the ground. A hand shot out and, for a moment, the girl thought it was to keep her from falling. Instead it took hold of the brush in her hand, and tugged it out of her hand efficiently.

Anko was spewing curses even as she fell to the ground.

Yuushi appeared moments later, and a paused to catch his breath and try and laugh at her at the same time. Anko growled. "This bastard let me fall!" she accused, pointing at the blankly staring man.

Yuushi struggled to breathe around his giggles. "You nearly bowled him over, Anko; you totally deserved it!" He finally got his act together and took a few deep breaths standing up straight and nodding to the man. "Thanks for making sure my brush would stay safe. I appreciate it."

The man stared at the redhead for a moment, then handed the brush back. "I saw that it was of a particularly good quality, and didn't want it damaged."

Yuushi beamed back. "You have a good eye." The man gave him a strange look and walked off, and Anko waited until the man was out of hearing range before she let out a loud laugh.

"Seriously, Yuushi? 'You have a good eye'? I'm kind of surprised he wasn't offended! "Yuushi cocked an eyebrow as he helped her up.

"Why would he have been offended? I was sincere. He has an incredible attention to detail to notice something like that so quickly."

Anko stared at him with something akin to amazement. For such a smart kid, Yuushi could be such an idiot sometimes. "Yuushi, that was an Uchiha."

The redhead stared back at her for a moment before hitting a fist into his open palm. "That would explain it!"

"You wrote a report about their first patriarch and you didn't even know what they looked like?!"

"Didn't know what who looked like?" Kaede had just joined them, and stared at them with curious blue eyes.

Anko snorted and jerked a thumb over at the faintly scowling redhead. "The genius here didn't know what an Uchiha looked like, even though he wrote a report on Madara."

"Why would I know what they looked like?" Yuushi snipped back defensively. "It's not like I run around getting arrested like _somebody_ here!"

As Anko loudly denied such accusations, Kaede just shook his head at the two of them. "But really, Yuushi. How did you _not_ know what the Uchiha look like?"

Yuushi frowned at the question, but it was directed more at the two in front of him. "Why do you guys say it like that?" he asked them, serious and silencing Anko with the force of his question. "'What the Uchiha look like'. You make them sound like something completely different from us. Like they sprout wings every other Monday and dance in front of fires. They _look_ like us, a mixture of genes similar yet unique to every single one of them." He looked disapproving. "You guys make it sound like they aren't one of us."

Kaede shuffled his feet at the words while Anko scowled back at redhead. "They _aren't_ one of us, Yuushi. They skulk around like they own the place, the noses turned up at everyone and everything."

"So do the Hyuuga, by your standards," Yuushi countered, beginning to get angry. "But you aren't nearly as disdainful about it."

"That's because I can _trust_ the Hyuuga!" Anko snapped, and knew she'd gone too far when Yuushi's eyes iced over.

"And how do you know that," he whispered heatedly, his chakra rising in response to his intense anger. "Can you read every one of their minds, and know that absolutely none of them mean harm? Can you do the same to every Uchiha, even the little toddlers that want for nothing but the love of their parents, and see evil in them? Can you really grab _two families_ , and shove them into separate boxes entirely?" His chakra entered a crescendo, before abruptly dying, and Anko looked up at Yuushi and flinched.

His eyes stared back at her with a tiredness she'd never seen from him before. "I deal with discrimination like that on a daily basis, Anko," he told her sadly, tugging at his worn clothes, "I won't have friends who do the same thing to someone else." He turned and walked away, the light-hearted moment completely shattered between them as he disappeared into the crowd, Kaede shocked and Anko unsure what to do.

Kaede made up her mind for her as he spun around to glare at her. "We are going to go apologize," he told her, grabbing her arm in a grip she wouldn't be able to shrug off. " _Now._ "

Anko struggled regardless. "Why should I?!" She rebutted, only to flinch as Kaede's grip tightened and Kaede shot her a dark look.

"Because Yuushi already has a hard time without his friends going around and making him doubt that they'll always be around for him."

Anko was completely stumped by that statement. "Why would he doubt us sticking around? We're friends."

"Didn't you hear him? He deals with that kind of stuff on a daily basis, probably from some shinobi and civilians that scorn orphans joining the shinobi forces, and here we are acting like that. And besides, Yuushi's an orphan; what if he finds out one day that one his parents was an Uchiha? He'd think we would immediately hate him after that, just because of his parents." Anko flinched a little at that. She hadn't meant it that way; she just let her mouth run away from her again.

"Alright, alright," she snatched her arm back and sped up to jog through the crowd, Kaede beside her. "I get your point. Let's just go apologize and hope that Yuushi will forgive us."

Behind the two kids, a pair of Uchiha that had overheard the argument shot one another looks, before continuing on their patrol.

* * *

"Where the hell did he run off to?" Kaede heard Anko mutter to herself after ten minutes of looking for Yuushi, and fought back the urge to scowl. She didn't have the right to complain.

No, he berated himself silently, it wasn't her fault that things blow up like they did; Yuushi has always been a person who couldn't care less about other people's opinions, barring perhaps his friends, so it made sense that it would chafe to hear one of his friends speaking in general terms about a group of people. And Kaede had been silently agreeing with Anko during the entire fight before Yuushi gave his last words, and immediately a feeling of shame swept through Kaede.

His parents did the same thing, the brunette remembered with a sick feeling in his stomach, telling him to stay away from Yuushi as he was an orphan.

" _He's dirty, and will only rob you blind under a pretense of friendship," his mother had warned him, an ugly sneer on her normally pretty face, his dad nodding beside her. "Orphans are just society's scum, Kaede; don't be drawn in by one."_

_Kaede, not so surprisingly, felt a flash of anger at his parents' words. "You don't even know Yuushi," he reminded them icily, a complete contrast to the fire burning in his heart. "He's the first person to be nice to me at the Academy, and he doesn't mind when I lose myself and start lecturing about random topics to him. Hell, he helped me get over the shock of my first kill, and didn't tease me at all."_

_His mother sniffed. "Regardless," she told him loftily, "you are to no longer talk with him. He's an_ orphan _, Kaede; he'll just be another nameless death sooner or later, with no one but that Anko girl to remember him." His father grunted in agreement and, for the first time in his life, Kaede saw his parents without any of their masks on. And he didn't like what he saw._

" _No," he told them sternly. "Yuushi is my friend, and the only reason I even have another, and I won't let you take that away from me." He stormed up to his room after that, ignoring his parents' shouts for him to come back down. In his room, Kaede gripped the goggles around his neck, and found his resolve grow even stronger. "I won't let them take him away," he repeated quietly. And he meant every word._

Kaede was broken out of his memories as Anko made a triumphant sound and sped up, and Kaede finally saw what she did as he picked up his own pace. Yuushi was sitting at their usual dango stand, staring at the countertop as he mechanically ate the stick of dango in his hand. His head snapped up as their footsteps grew closer, and Kaede felt like scum as he registered the wariness on the redhead's face. He opened his mouth to apologize, but Anko beat him to it.

"Yuushi, I'm sorry, alright?" She looked at him with desperate sincerity. "I was being a bitch, and acting like all of those ignorant villagers and lower-rank shinobi. You're right, everyone's a bit different in their own way; I was just being to hard-headed to really see it. But I don't want to lose you over something like this, so I'm really really sorry." She fidgeted a little as she finished and Yuushi looked at them both to gauge their honesty.

Finally his eyes warmed. "You'll try to do better?" They both nodded so quickly they threatened whiplash, and Yuushi smiled at them. "Then I forgive you." They continued their seemingly aimless meandering through the village, but Anko and Kaede knew that they wouldn't be forgetting this conversation for some time to come, if they ever forgot it at all.

"So," Yuushi began, interrupting the other two's silent conversation and causing them to focus on him. "The Final Exam's coming up. Think you're ready?"

"Hell yeah I'm ready!" Anko cheered, folding her arms behind her head and grinning cheerfully at them. "I'll ace the weapons portion and Ninjutsu easily. I mean, who _can't_ make a bunshin?" The dig hit its mark as the redhead sulked a little in response.

"Shut up, it's not my fault my chakra is huge. I am _water walking_ without a problem and I can't make a single clone. This is ridiculous."

"You really do have too much chakra," Kaede agreed sympathetically as Anko cackled beside them. "Do you think you'll be able to pass? They put a lot of weight in the Ninjutsu portion of the test."

"It'll be a huge hit to my grade, but I should ace the other stuff and thus pass. At the very least I'll make good cannon fodder," he joked morbidly, getting disapproving looks from the other two in response. He cleared his throat awkwardly in an attempt to escape their looks. "Anyway, how do you think you'll do Kaede?"

"Fairly well," the brunet answered easily. "With you too pop quizzing me and each other constantly I think I have a good grasp of the history portion, my weapon skills are average at best, and I have the best chakra control out of all of us that can make a clone," he tacked on at the end when Yuushi shot him a sullen look.

"So say we all pass," Yuushi continued, ignoring Anko's muffled snickering as Kaede shot him an apologetic look. "Who would be our teams, or our sensei?"

"Well," Anko jumped in, smile darkly amused. "If they're fucking stupid enough to assign us to different teams, your teammates will…likely suffer from unfortunate accidents. My pre-planned condolences." Yuushi snorted a little while Kaede shot her a horrified look. "As for sensei…who knows? None of the jounin have really talked about who's applying to be a sensei this year at my parent's stand, so I'm in the dark."

"I'm an orphan," Yuushi deadpanned. "I don't know any jounin on a first name basis."

"My family doesn't like to communicate with the shinobi," Kaede admitted, eyes dropping a little in shame before Anko nudged him out of it. "As such, I don't know any jounin either."

"So…we're all in the dark about our potential sensei," she groused. "Wonderful."

* * *

"Oh my gosh, Yuushi," Anko exclaimed, amused when the redhead walked in the day after the Final Exam. "You actually managed to pass!"

The girl cackled as Yuushi threw a senbon on her, catching it between her fingers as she leaned back. Kaede, sitting beside her, obligingly smacked her when Yuushi aimed a look at him. As she spun around to yell at him, Yuushi slipped into his seat beside her and took his senbon back.

It didn't take long after his arrival for the Academy teacher to show up and begin assigning teams. "Team Four," he finally said, Yuushi and Anko barely paying attention. "Yuushi, Mitarashi Anko, and Aikawa Kaede." Having perked up at the first of their names being called, Anko whooped in glee and Yuushi punched the air in exuberance.

"Woohoo! Hear that, guys? Team Four! That can only mean good things for us!"

"Or, at the very least, bad things for our enemies," Kaede drawled.

They completely ignored the other teams being called out and instead chatted quietly to one another – Kaede and Yuushi doing most of the talking as Anko doesn't know the meaning of the word "quiet" – and waited for the teacher to dismiss them. They didn't have to wait long.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," an unrepentant voice cut in, making their sensei screech to a halt in his listing. "I appear to have come too early. None the less, I am here for my students." Golden eyes flashed across the room before zeroing in on Yuushi and his friends.

A smirk crossed the man's face. "Team Four, I am your sensei, Orochimaru," The Snake Sage introduced, the look in his eyes wicked. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! Finished chapter 4! Sorry if I seemed to jump from place to place, I tried to keep the story's flow consistent. And so we see Yuushi's beginning fascination with the Uchiha and the Uchiha's returned curiosity with Yuushi. This will continue being a thing.


End file.
